Stafford Hospital campaigners left in the dark, says Kate Godfrey

STAFFORD Hospital campaigners battling plans to dissolve the Mid Staffs NHS Trust say they still have no details on why bids for a judicial review have been rejected.

Stafford Labour parliamentary candidate Kate Godfrey, who launched one of the judicial review bids, told the Newsletter she was still waiting for an official letter from the High Court setting out the reasons for the judge's decision.

And a request to have it emailed to her - to give her more time to put together an appeal against the rejection of the judicial review - had been turned down.

"I was told it was a very long letter and it was being sent by post," Ms Godfrey said. "It hasn't arrived yet, and may well not get here till Monday - but we only have until the middle of next week to lodge an appeal, and we need time to study the letter.

"We were able to email documents to the court, and it's incredible that in this day and age they can't or won't email back to us."

She said she was also concerned that official notification of the judgement was lagging behind leaks and Twitter rumours.

And Support Stafford Hospital campaigner Cheryl Porter said the group had also found out about the rejection via social media rather than official channels. An anonymous SSH supporter had launched a separate bid for a judicial review, in parallel from the one from Ms Godfrey.

"I telephoned our supporter's solicitors on Thursday afternoon when the rumours started surfacing, but they didn't know anything about it," Mrs Porter said. "I can't believe this has happened - but the battle goes on."

Ms Godfrey said she had received more than 130 phone calls overnight, from all over the country, expressing outrage at the decision, and her phone started ringing again at 6.30am today.

Fresh protests are being planned over the future of Stafford Hospital. Ms Godfrey said local Labour Party members had been planing to man a stall in Stafford's Market Square on Saturday morning to protest at a shake up in cancer care and potential privatisation. But they were now offering the stall to Support Stafford Hospital campaigners for a wider protest at NHS changes.